What's your favorite Manson guitar out of the ones you've played and what's the one you've had the most fun with?
The plain basic black ones are still my favourite, they just feel solid but lightweight and can take a beating. On the tech side, the Kaoss pad has been fun but I probably haven't utilised it as much as I could.

Matt do you still think it's weird to record vocals in front of a lot of people and if not, could it be part of a Making Of-release in the future?
I'm obviously fine on stage and with small crowds etc, but I'm not comfortable performing vocals in front of people in a studio environment because I'm trying to focus on stuff and often I make changes to lyrics midway through, so for me it's best to be alone or maybe with an engineer/producer so I can concentrate as the songs are not necessarily finished and 'performance ready' yet.

When you have the melody of a song in your mind, how do you communicate this into bass, drums and symphony arrangements for everyone?
When I'm writing sometimes the bass lines and grooves come first e.g. with Uprising, Hysteria, Time Is Running Out and Madness. I actually wrote the melody and lyrics after coming up with the bassline/groove concept. Other songs like The Globalist and Supremacy I actually start with the symphonic arrangements and everything else is added afterwards. I communicate it to the others either by humming, beat box, playing on guitar/piano or sometimes programmed demos with orchestration or drum grooves etc.

What did the composing of The International End Titles look like? Matt is credited for that along with several other composers, so it would be interesting to hear who did what.
The film composers sent pad like chords morphing across a 10 minute or so piece. I pulled out a bit that had some structure and made it repeat, added other layers/textures, rhythm and the string melodies.

Pre-release you talked about The Globalist being a sequel to Citizen Erased, and that you tried to get back into that sort of mindset while writing it. Could you elaborate on that? What were you trying to recapture, why Citizen Erased specifically, and what drove the decision to include rearrangements of several existing pieces of music into the song?
I guess Citizen Erased is loosely about a person disappearing into nothing, declining to take control/power and choosing to fade from memory rather than embrace the chaos; feeling trampled and bowing away. The Globalist is the opposite: a person taking their power/control to disturbing ends. Both could be the cause/result of the other. Both have similar progressive arrangements, both involve piano/guitar transitions and both have a big heavy low A riff. The Globalist is the dictator that rises up will certainly erase any citizens in their way!

What is your favourite classical piece to play on the piano?
I don't really have the dexterity to play complex classical pieces. I can do vague impressions. I tried a couple of Chopin pieces like ‘Raindrops’ (the prelude one) but forgot it when I tried to play it recently. I can't sight read, so it takes me ages to memorise stuff. I've not been very focussed on piano in recent years, mainly guitar, I probably need to get back on it.
How are the sheep doing?
Good! Happy enjoying the sea views.
Have you ever considered making a full classical album?
I have written standalone classical stuff, but I always manage to find a way to incorporate it into Muse. Survival was based on an entirely classical piece I wrote with no vocal or band. Same re Exogenesis, Unsustainable and Globalist to some degree. Maybe it would be fun to release an album of the original arrangements for those pieces before I attempted to make them work in a rock band context. I'm unsure there is enough material to fill a whole album yet but maybe in the future.

When you finish recording an album, is there any special ritual you always do to celebrate?
Not really. Mainly a big sigh of relief and then panic about how I'm going to explain it in interviews!

Lets think the unthinkable and say what if Muse threw in the towel, had enough and called it a day as a band. If you had the opportunity to join a band that exists today which band would you join and what instrument would you play?
Hmmm not sure. I would probably enjoy a break from being the 'front man' and just be a guitarist in someone else's dream/vision. I can't think of an example. Maybe if Chvrches wanted a guitarist that would be interesting, but for now I'm definitely happy where I am!

If you could change something in the music industry, what would it be and why?
Record labels should probably downsize to just being marketing companies who help artists for a period of time, for a %, rather than being music copyright owners who take the lion's share of things like streaming income for eternity.

What's your favourite sci fi film?
Predator

What would your Showbiz era selves say about the music you make now?
Wow, weird.

What's the first thing you do when you get home after a long tour?
Relax, play with Bing, relax, try to find some sun to lie in, play with Bing, relax.